Congratulations to all Victorian players who in the Australian Underwater Hockey Championships held in Palm Beach, Queensland in January 2017.
The Victorian U19 team played well throughout the tournament, improving game on game. The team ultimately finished 4th after a nail-biting loss in the semi final to NSW. A closely contested game was level at 2-2 until a runaway goal by NSW with 30 seconds to play. It was a great game by all accounts but unfortunately the result didn’t go our way.
Victoria had strong representation in the women’s divisions with four players (Brylie Robinson, Sarah MacBeth-Kirton, Lisa Mildenhall and Caterina Alleway) playing in the silver medal winning U19 Women’s team while five Victorian players (Nina Barry-Macaulay, Kirsteen Reid, Belinda Watts, Zoe Canavan and Emma Le-Mar) played with the Amazon’s team in the Elite Women’s division.
Melbourne player Todd Canavan won gold while playing for the WA Elite men’s team and Phillip Island’s David McFee, who also coached the Victorian U19 team, won gold with the NSW Masters team.
Other Victorian junior players who represented other states in the U15 division at the competition included Lee Duke, Ben Robinson (gold with the Queensland team), Bradley Peters and Kasey Hoskin.
Massive congratulations must also go to several players selected for higher duties. Zoe Canavan in the Elite Australian Women, Todd Canavan in the Elite Australian Men. Caterina Alleway was named in the extended squad for the U19 Australian Women while Tom Robinson and Roy Trumble were selected for the U19 Men.